When to See the Dentist When Your Gums Hurt

Posted on 1/13/2017 by Dr. Call

Some people go in to see their dentist's at the slightest issue in their mouth, and this is not necessarily a bad approach. However, others wait until a problem is severe to even call and make an appointment.

The best approach is somewhere in between for most people, erring on the side of when the issue first starts. If you notice that your gums hurt, you should keep an eye on it as it could be a lot of different things causing the discomfort. However, if the pain doesn't stop, you should go get seen.

Causes of Gum Pain

If you have gum disease and feel pain in your gums, then you definitely need to be treated by your dentist. The worse gum disease gets, the worse its effects get, too. However, gum disease is typically painless in its early stages, so if you are to the point of feeling pain, you definitely need to go in and get seen.

Drinking a beverage that was too hot can cause your gums to feel sore. They often throb after this type of a tissue injury. In order to speed up healing, rinse your mouth 3-4 times each day with a lukewarm saline solution, as the salt helps to speed up healing. If you have blisters from the drink, have your dentist take a look before you do anything else.

Eating a food that pushed into your gums is a common cause for gum pain. If the gum is just slightly sore, you can easily wait a day or two and will likely be fine. If you were bleeding or the swelling gets hot, call your dentist and get seen.

If your gums are hurting and you aren't sure if you should be seen or not, contact our office. They will listen to what's going on and give you their best advice.

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Welcome to Century Dental, where we make your beautiful smile our business! Dr. Densley and Dr. Call have teamed up to create the driving force in the dental industry of the Pacific Northwest. We have put together a team of highly skilled, professional staff.

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We take great pride in creating a comfortable and friendly environment where our patients can have a positive dental experience. Located in Hillsboro, our office is easily accessible as it is right off of Oregon Route 8. We have gone to great lengths to make sure our office is both state-of-the-art and also comfortable and inviting.

Services Offered

We are passionate about preventing problems before they start. We do so by educating our patients about what positive dental habits they can be forming and having our patients visit us twice a year for exams and cleanings.

We understand that often, due to circumstances outside of your control, your mouth may need restorative actions taken. That’s why we offer a bevy of restorative procedures to bring your smile back to it’s original luster.

Frequently we hear that the procedures that make the biggest difference in our patient’s smiles are cosmetic in nature. Whitening, veneers and Invisalign® are just a few of the cosmetic procedure we offer!

For those patients that need more than just oral sedation we offer what is often called “sleep sedation”. If anxiety is an issue or if the procedure calls for it we can easily place you under full anesthesia to ensure that you rest peacefully through the whole thing.

If you have lost a tooth or are looking at tooth removal as an option, dental implants are the most highly recommended form of replacement for teeth. Dental implants involve inserting a titanium post into your jaw which will fuse with your bone structure. The post will be topped with a crown made specifically to fit your bite. The result is a form of tooth replacement that looks and acts exactly as your real tooth would. It even prevents bone loss, which is a common side effect of tooth loss.

We are happy to use a great variety of cutting edge technology in our practice. Digital X-rays are one of our staples in dental tech. Standard X-rays can take time to view and process but with the advent of digital X-rays we can view the inner workings of your mouth almost instantly. We are also able to take higher quality X-rays that allow us to detect things like tooth decay within the tooth, cysts, tumors, and impacted teeth. Further, the radiation you receive from a digital X-ray device is about 1/5th that of a standard X-ray.

We also offer intraoral cameras and ultrasonic scalers. The intraoral cameras aid us in detecting any issues within your mouth that may need further dental attention. Ultrasonic scalers are by far the most effective method for removing built up plaque and tartar that has accumulated on teeth.